fly away pretty bird
by fayeeliza
Summary: Melinda May gets a call in the middle of the night about an emergency foster care placement with a girl living with terminal cancer. When she says yes her world is turned upside down.


Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/16563434.

Rating: Not Rated Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death Fandom: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV) Character: Skye | Daisy Johnson, Melinda May, Bobbi Morse, Jemma Simmons Additional Tags: if you need a little cry here you go, Chronic Illness, Hospitalization, Kid Fic, Kid Skye | Daisy Johnson, Cancer, One Shot, Fluff and Angst Stats: Published: 2018-11-10 Words: 956 fly away pretty bird

by fayeeliza

Summary

Melinda May gets a call in the middle of the night about an emergency foster care placement with a girl living with terminal cancer. When she says yes her world is turned upside down.

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

"You do understand Miss May that this young girl only has a few months left to live, but we really want her to have someone to watch over her."

"I understand when can we meet her ?"

"Tomorrow morning. The hospital wants you there during this round of chemo, she really needs someone to support her."

"Okay, tomorrow, anything she particularly likes so we can bring her something to play with in the hospital."

"She loves computers and electronics, when I visited her on her first week at the hospital one of the nurses found her playing with the wires hooked up to her feeding pump."

"She sounds amazing, Thanks for calling Callie." May replied as she put the phone down.

She sighed as she looked round to see Jemma and Bobbi playing in their den they had built out of cushions and blankets.

"Mommy look look Jem is building the den even higher!"

She smiled to see her favourite two people in the world.

"Hey Jem Bobbi come here Mommy was just on the phone to Callie, she wants us to go see a little girl in hospital and help her feel better."

Jemma cocked her head,

"Has she got motor neuron disease because that's what I've been reading about in class." she asked way too excitedly

"No baby she has a type of cancer called 'Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma'"

"Is she going to die ?" was the first words Bobbi had said as soon as she heard the word cancer.

Melinda didn't really know how to answer that question but she believed honesty was the best policy.

"Yes she will but it's important that we make the time she spends with us really good and happy even though she's sick."

"I'll bring my colouring book and crayons so she can colour."

"That's an amazing idea Bobs, Jemma have you got one of your robot making kits I bought for you and Leo."

Jemma nodded and ran up the stairs to grab them.

They decided to fill a backpack with fun things for Skye to play with in the hospital and brought it with them the next day.

/

Skye wasn't really sure what she was expecting when one of the nurses had said that a family would be coming to visit her. She wasn't really much fun to spend time with because she couldn't do normal kid stuff like go to school or play at the park but she'd never had visitors so she was excited anyway. Even though the nurses were fun to play with they had to do other things in the hospital so it was mostly just her.

"Hi Skye I'm Melinda, this is Bobbi and Jemma." She pointed to two small girls one had blonde hair and the others was kind of blonde but more brown.

"We brought you some toys, this ones a robot you can build." One of the girls held up a box with lots of wires and metal poking out of it. Skye's eyes lit up at the sight of it.

"Thank you" She managed to croak out her slightly sore throat.

Within in minutes all three girls were chatting as if they were in the school playground during recess.

/

Everyday Jemma and Bobbi would visit Skye.

Someday's Skye was so sick that she wouldn't talk much but she still tried to stay awake and savour the moments she got with some of the most compassionate people she'd ever met

They covered her hospital room walls with drawing of them going on adventures, princesses, captain America, Jellyfish and all sorts of animals. The room didn't have an inch of free wall space.

Melinda would visit Skye every spare hour she had. Sometimes instead of talking and playing, Skye would just lie with Melinda in her bed and just cuddle to her. Everything almost felt normal for those hours.

But that didn't last long Skye's seizures were becoming more frequent and getting her to eat was a constant battle. Skye's body became frail and her cheeks sunk in.

Jemma came and visited with May one afternoon when Bobbi was at a friends. May dipped out the room for 10 minutes to grab a coffee and some treats for Skye and Jemma.

"Hey Skye are you scared to die?" Jemma enquired

"No, that's so silly why would you be scared of death, I'm going to become a new life when I die. I hope to become a butterfly they are so beautiful." Skye promptly responded

"Is that why you have so many butterflies hanging from your ceiling?"

"Yeah I watch them when I feel sad about being sick, they help me see what I'm going to become. There's a word for it I can't remember meta-mor-something."

"Metamorphosis." Jemma stated

"Jemma will you tell me a story about space again."

"Sure"

Skye lay her head on Jemma's shoulder and listen to her story about one of the constellations that is called Octans.

/

Melinda got the talk that she wasn't ready for,

'There is nothing more we can do'

Sobs escaped her lips

She knew it was going to happen

But this little girl was a glimmer of sun in a world full of storm clouds.

When they all came to the hospital room, Skye whispered to May

'I want to go outside'

So they did they unhooked all her IVs and various wires and took her to the park.

She was too weak to walk so May carried her and lay her down onto the grass.

In that moment Skye felt peace not fear not pain just inner peace.

As those final breathes reached her lungs she thought of the caterpillars change to butterfly it seemed sad at first but it became something beautiful.

End Notes

I recently dealt with death in my life and I personally believe in reincarnation so this story means a lot to me. song from title is pretty bird by crooked still 3 -faye

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